Spotted at Hackaday is a story on positive reinforcement to train crows to pick up litter:
A Dutch startup wants to teach the crow population to pick up cigarette butts in exchange for bird treats.
The whole Corvidae family of birds is highly intelligent so it shouldn’t be a problem training them that they will get a reward for depositing something the Hominidae family regularly throw on the street where the birds live. This idea is in turn an evolution of the open-source Crow Box.
For some, leveraging the intelligence of animals is more appealing than programming drones which could do the same thing. A vision system mixed with a drone and a manipulator could fulfull[sic] the same function but animals are self-repairing and autonomous without our code. The irony of this project is that, although it's probably fairly easy to train crows to recognize cigarette butts, the implementation hinges on having a vision system that can recognize the butts in order to properly train the crows in the first place.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @03:56PM (45 children)
Probably easier to train the crows than to teach the people not to litter.
(Score: 5, Funny) by frojack on Tuesday October 10 2017, @04:03PM (28 children)
Or just peck the living shit out of anyone smoking in public.
Where's Alfred Hitchcock when you actually need him?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1, Troll) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday October 10 2017, @04:10PM (26 children)
Lung-Nazi. You'd have to stand in the big middle of an outdoors crowd of smokers for extended periods per day for quite a very long time to pick up even a minor health issue.
Side note: My butts are entirely biodegradable in under a month, being as they're made of nothing but paper and leaves.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by requerdanos on Tuesday October 10 2017, @04:21PM (8 children)
You may be missing the point: though some (not very bright) people claim that the problem in this activity is "health problems", that's only a tangent. People who light (paper and) leaves on fire and suck on them emit noxious fumes that *smell bad* and irritate the eyes, nose, and sensibilities of anyone not involved in said activity. This is rude and annoying if done within the olfactory range of other people.
If there were people who could perform extended silent-but-deadly farting for ten to fifteen minutes at the time in crowded public places, you would have a nearly identical problem, and saying "Hey it technically won't kill you unless you witness it for a long time" is a pointless and non-responsive rejoinder to both.
They all used to be that way, until fiberglass-never-biodegrade filters were "just what the doctor ordered [imgix.net]."
(Score: 2, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday October 10 2017, @04:38PM
Nah, the health argument is the most common so it's the one I addressed. As to addressing yours: you have no right written anywhere, even in etiquette manuals, to not be offended by others unless they are intentional in their offense. Most smokers are anything but intentionally offending you. They simply want a five minute or so break from their day, preferably somewhere out of the cold and rain but they're willing to put up with even those to accommodate non-smokers.
There is very much a line of circumstance beyond which accommodating you ceases to be honoring a reasonable and polite request and becomes putting up with an absurd proposition from an asshole.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Arik on Tuesday October 10 2017, @04:49PM (3 children)
That part I'll give you. But I think his reply covers the vast majority of cases. You can smoke, or fart, all you want, outdoors, and it really doesn't bother me a bit. Even if I'm quite close to you, having a face to face conversation, it's not going to bother me unless you blow it right in my face or the wind shifts. Also, even if I do happen to catch a momentary whiff of someone as I'm passing by them in a public open space and find it unpleasant, it lasts only an instant, I'm not going to backtrack to confront someone for inadvertently causing me a brief moment of discomfort.
Now if people are lighting up in elevators, sure, then they're being the assholes. But I more often see it the other way around. People are indoctrinated on how bad smoking is (which makes a certain amount of sense, we should warn them not to start) and once people learn a rule some inevitably feel like they should be enforcing it on others. The term "lung nazi" may be an offensive one, and it may represent a stereotype, but like many stereotypes this is one that exists because we all know someone who portrays it. When they cross a large open space in order to confront someone you know it's not the smoke itself that bothered them, it's the fact that someone was smoking.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by ledow on Tuesday October 10 2017, @05:42PM (1 child)
I ask people not to smoke near me for the same reason I ask them not to breathe all over me, or to wear some deodorant. The smell can be pervasive and offensive. My mother is a life-long smoker. Honestly, she's done more damage to me than any random smoker ever would. But non-smoking people know if I've even BEEN to my parents house because I come back smelling of smoke. I'm quite used to it being a background smell so I often don't, but when you've had a break away, you gain the ability to smell it again. Those people who already smoke are blind to it, but it's there.
There's a reason eBay users say things like "comes from a smoke-free home"... because, you know, we CAN SMELL IT even after it's been sent halfway across the country in a parcel, and it can stink - it's not just us being fussy, clothes and soft toys especially suck it up and it can reek for weeks and it smells like something is on fire. And if it's something like a child's toy or a gift that you're selling, it's downright offensive to be reeking like that, in the same way you wouldn't want it to smell of wet dog or bad breath.
However, I don't care about my health being affected - I'll walk away. That's not the issue. An issue is that you're an addict who stopped getting benefit (buzz/whatever) from the nicotine years ago and now you're just stuck in a loop having to have it in order to get back to "normal". That bugs me in a person. Just how weak are you? You're supposed to be adults and you can't see it or combat it.
But even THAT won't make me stop you smoking. You know who the last guy I told to cut it out was? Some idiot at an beer garden (think pub where you can drink outside, quite civilised despite the name) who was puffing on some stupid vape contraption that made him look like he had the world's largest asthma inhaler (ironic) literally blowing huge fucking clouds (no exaggeration - you could lose an adult inside them for several seconds) of some horrible sickly apple-flavoured shite towards everyone else. He was blissfully unaware (but I find it hard to believe that NOBODY who lives/works with him has told him that it's obnoxious), while everyone around was moving tables and wafting it out of their faces and trying to eat with some fake apple air-freshener-like smell pervades an entire open-air eating area. Now THAT'S offensive. Harmless, maybe, but still offensive.
I don't care that you want to kill yourself, so long as you're paying for it (pay your taxes, pay the duty on your cigarettes, pay your healthcare if applicable).
I don't think there's a significant risk to myself if you're smoking over there and I'm sitting over here, so long as it's not reaching me - cigarette smoke basically won't.
But what I find irritating are the habits that go with it:
- pervasive smells inflicted on others (however that's done!), it can be like sitting next to someone who's been working in a bonfire all day.
- getting tetchy because you're five minutes late with your break.
- trying to make roll-ups and spreading shit all over the table that you don't clean up (and the horrible licking and lip-smacking noises)
- throwing cigarette butts on the floor. Hell, just pinch the damn thing out and stick it back in a tobacco box or something if there's honestly nowhere to put it.
- talking constantly about giving up and then never lasting more than a week (same bugbear for people on diets!).
- the coughing fits where you then light one up two seconds after coughing your guts up over everyone else.
Kill yourself with drugs, smoking, alcohol, whatever. Just don't inflict it on me, or other people, and have some common decency while you're there. To be honest, all the last bits of that list are the reasons I get annoyed with smokers. Not that they disappear for five minutes and have a quick cigarette.
(To be honest, my problem with drug addicts is not that they're addicted - it's that they can leave shit lying around for kids to find, encourage others to do it, and the side-effects - e.g. violence or crime to support their habit... that bugs me a million times more than the possibility they might just keel over and die one day through a habit that they knew about the risks of and continued with. Before you laugh, during and between the World Wars people had cocaine, opium and heroin readily available. People used it. It was accepted. You could buy it in London shops. Hell, Sherlock Holmes is portrayed as an opium addict, and nobody goes "ARGH!". Because they did NOT have the downright inconsiderate disregard for others. I'm much more offended by your failure to clean up after yourself, and your disregard for others, than any disregard you have for your own health).
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Tuesday October 10 2017, @11:54PM
So you admit that you aren't just lung-nazi, but righteous-nazi as well?
I (and anyone) can be as strong or as weak as they want/afford/etc.
As long as as it doesn't affect you, I'd appreciate if you could keep your value judgments for yourself and don't try to impose them on me - they are as hurtful for my mind as smoke from others would be to your comfort.
I'm already doing it - not inflicting anything of my habits to you.
In return, I'd be grateful if you stop your 'pollution with righteousness' - I'm getting annoyed/triggered by this, very much like you do by the presence of inconsiderate smokers in public places.
(Dam', I'm an adult and, for reasons I don't need to share with anyone, I chose to continue smoking. I find it rude to call me "weak" when you know next to nothing about me, and doing this annoys me).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Funny) by sjames on Tuesday October 10 2017, @08:28PM
I don't smoke, but I do find it funny to mime smoking sometimes just to watch passers by pointedly hacking up a lung.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @05:41PM
I'm a non-smoker, but I'd hardly say cigarettes smell bad, at least while they're being smoked. Now, the stale smell of smoke on clothing, that's nothing pleasant...but it's not really any worse than some of the crap people buy to spray on themselves because they think it smells nice. Nevermind what some body sprays will do to your eyes and nose. The best deterrent to keeping adults away from school children is Axe body spray, blech. Never mind car exhaust, which in addition to all of these issues, ALSO actually is a health hazard.
I guess the point is, if you don't like being around what other people do, maybe a city isn't the place for you. Go out to the country, and give the cows some Poo-Pourri.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by sjames on Tuesday October 10 2017, @08:22PM (1 child)
So when will the intense perfume/cologne with it's eye burning sneeze inducing (and occasionally worse) noxiousness be banned?
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Wednesday October 11 2017, @01:53PM
Shortly after someone has decided to wear "Tactical SC" as a cologne would be my guess ;)
(I'm actually curious about what the legal status would be for that)
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Tuesday October 10 2017, @05:51PM (4 children)
I don't care about smoking outside as long as you are not clogging up narrow sidewalks or standing next to doorways. (Which always happens when it gets cold out.)
The issue is smoker's throwing butts on th ground. And don't claim you don't do it. Every smoker I have ever seen does it when there is no cigarette safe container nearby. Finished one in the car? Out the window.
Stomp it out on the ground then throw it in the trash, no problem. I have never seen someone pick up a stomped butt.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday October 10 2017, @06:39PM
Exactly.
I can usually avoid smoking zones, those smoking stations (marked by the Butt disposal pylons) invariably are littered with butts, not to mention the ash flicked off at random and tracked into the establishment. But the filters persist in the environment for decades.
https://www.thoughtco.com/are-cigarette-butts-biodegradable-1204105 [thoughtco.com]
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/may/15/ban-cigarette-filters-hazardous-tobacco-waste [theguardian.com]
http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/20/Suppl_1/i25 [bmj.com]
But The Buzzard doesn't smoke filtered Cigs, so even though he admits to tossing the butts on the ground, and doesn't lobby loudly for publicly funded health care, he expects to be above reproach.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday October 10 2017, @11:58PM (2 children)
I don't - I have the pack of ciggies I took it from - the but fits back there if I don't find a trash can.
So long for your claim of every smoker - one counterexample is enough to demolish an absolute generalization.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by t-3 on Wednesday October 11 2017, @12:55AM (1 child)
When I used to smoke (switched to vaping, still smoke occasionally if I'm drinking though), I would do this, but always field strip the butt first - the ash and stale smoke smell would ruin the rest of the pack for me if I put it back in without stripping it.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday October 11 2017, @01:38AM
Pretty much doing the same, but rather to make sure I'm not putting some embers in my pocket (I'm no longer that sensible to the taste/smell of the ciggies - I'm beyond the point in which I consider smoking a pleasure).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday October 10 2017, @06:34PM (3 children)
> Side note: My butts are entirely biodegradable in under a month
But most assholes litter the place with butts that take 5 years or more to degrade (according to PMI, so we can assume best-case).
Regardless of actual degradation time, we should train the crow to follow the smokers and drop the discarded butts in their house. Extra reward if they drop them on the bed or inside any cookware.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday October 10 2017, @08:28PM
That would amuse, yes.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by t-3 on Wednesday October 11 2017, @01:00AM (1 child)
In an urban environment 5+ years are probably right, but a cigarrete filter will degrade pretty rapidly when buried or composted - most of them are made of a synthetic or processed cellulose. I know a guy who used to collect butts from the collectors at local factories, shred them with an old lawnmower, and use them to mulch his rose garden.
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Wednesday October 11 2017, @01:59PM
Well, the fibrous structure makes it a decent soil aggregate (just like gravel, perlite, rockwool or leca-pellets), no need for it to decompose.
Also, nicotine is a pretty brutal insecticide, so making the soil toxic with it will really reduce the pests.
Whenever I get aphids I either get a can of neonicotines or get a few cigarettes, let them soak for a few days and then spray my plants with it.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday October 10 2017, @08:35PM (6 children)
I'm not a smoker, but a friend once brought me some cigars fresh from Cuba (if memory serves): they were fresh rolled, I got them like 3 days later.
My god, they were the best things I've ever smoked.
On my bucket list: move south somewhere and move next door to a lady who rolls cigars against her thigh. Smoke myself to death.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday October 10 2017, @08:50PM (5 children)
Oh, shit yes. Them commie bastards can grow n roll some fine, fine tobacco. Must be using all the bullshit their leaders shovel at them for fertilizer.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 11 2017, @03:45AM (4 children)
More like the lack of the additives and poisons that the Capitalist Pigs put into their cigs to make them more addictive.
It's the Tobacco Industry's version of crack nicotine: http://www.npr.org/2012/09/07/160752629/the-secrets-in-a-cigarette [npr.org]
Diammonium Phosphate=freebasing agent: http://www.rjrt.com/commercial-integrity/ingredients/cigarette-ingredients/ [rjrt.com]
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2424107/ [nih.gov]
I'm wondering if they would do similar stuff to marijuana...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday October 11 2017, @11:04AM (3 children)
Yup, which is why I roll my own from largely un-fucked-with "pipe tobacco". That and the fact that it costs me roughly $25 a month.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Wednesday October 11 2017, @02:05PM (2 children)
Wait.. you are telling us you do all-plant cogarettes and also use pipe-tobacco? You might just be the one cigarette-smoker I like then.
A few questions then.
1) Do you still drag the smoke into your lungs? (Only crap quality (cigarette) tobacco needs this, other kinds is enough to keep in the oral cavity)
2) What stops you from starting to roll your own cigarrs?
3) Why not smoking pipe instead=
4) Do consider looking into growing and curing your own tobacco.
4b) The leaves are great instead of paper (classical wrapper)
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday October 11 2017, @02:31PM (1 child)
1) Yep. The feel of smoke entering your lungs is essential to smoking. I could never smoke anything and not inhale.
2) Nothing except the lack of wrapping leaves and skill.
3) I do. "As well" rather than "instead of". I'm a bit snobby about what tobacco I put in a pipe though, so it's too expensive for an hourly vice.
4) I've looked into it but I'm currently renting rather than buying, so I don't want to till up the yard and plant crops.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Wednesday October 11 2017, @03:06PM
1) Try it, especially with new blends. It will allow you to fully experience the flavour of some blends since some subtleties otherwise will be lost (At least try it for a few puffs of the pipe - kinda like how one rolls a new beer on the tounge to fully experience it before going into enjoyment mode rather than exploring - if nothing else just to whet your apetite for the first "normal" inhale :)
2+4) Tobacco is remarkably easy to grow and can be grown and cured even in apartments (some snus-users do it over here) - try growing 2-4 plants in pots (quart-sized are enough) for leaves for cigarrs (or cigarrilos). Youtube has some quite useful videos on rolling cigarrs.
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Thursday October 12 2017, @07:54PM
False. I'm asthmatic. It affects me instantly in a very direct way. People who are allergic to smoke will also react immediately to it and it, producing immediate health issues even for them. Even though I'm all for people smoking if they want (freedom of choice as long as people don't interfere with my freedom of choice), I felt the need to debunk this idea of yours that no one is affected until a long time has passed.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by mobydisk on Tuesday October 10 2017, @06:26PM
How about just pecking the people who throw their cigarette butts on the ground?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Tuesday October 10 2017, @04:51PM (12 children)
Your "probably" is unnecessary here. It's a certainty. Humans really are that stupid, at least in the US. (You won't see cigarette butts all over the place in Japan, or any other trash for that matter.)
I heartily agree with Frojack's idea of training the birds to attack and peck at people who litter. However, this could result in the birds being injured by the litterers; some laws strongly punishing litterers who even attempt to defend themselves against the birds (as this might hurt the birds) probably won't help much because the litterers' reactions are partially reflexive. So maybe we should train the birds to shit on people who litter.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday October 10 2017, @05:03PM (3 children)
That I can back, for filtered cigarettes anyway. Throwing your non-biodegradable trash, or even noticeably large bits of biodegradable trash, anywhere but in an appropriate receptacle is a real shithead move on any land you don't personally own (on your own land it's moronic but acceptable).
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @07:26PM (1 child)
Please begin your usual gymnastics to justify why what bothers you is wrong, what bothers others shouldn't bother them, and you hold the one true view.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday October 10 2017, @08:29PM
Care to try again in the correct thread?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by TheLink on Wednesday October 11 2017, @03:59AM
There are benefits of dumping biodegradable trash on land surfaces to actually "biodegrade" compared to having it locked in an anaerobic landfill:
http://newatlas.com/orange-peel-forest-costa-rica/51012/ [newatlas.com]
https://www.princeton.edu/news/2017/08/22/orange-new-green-how-orange-peels-revived-costa-rican-forest [princeton.edu]
It stinks while rotting though so dumping orange or banana peels in your neighbor's garden without permission might not be welcome.
But if 100s of hikers a day scattered their banana peels in a forest while hiking the forest might actually benefit. More "nutritious" food waste might attract bears or other large predators so might wish to be careful about that...
Meanwhile I'm wondering how long it would take for a "significant level" of fungi and bacteria to work out better ways to crack plastic like was done for wood cellulose ages ago.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Aiwendil on Tuesday October 10 2017, @07:28PM (7 children)
Other than japanese just being adverse to littering it also is a result of an invention that seems dumfounds the rest of the world - pocket ashtrays. It basically is a little thing that looks like a pocket watch that you extinguish the cigarette in and then put the butt in until you are at a suitable place to toss its contents (exactly the same design that was common among the gentlemen up until the mid 1900s).
I'd actually love to see a country send half a dozen (should cost less than a buck per such pack) such to each household (and hand it out at shelters) and then launch a massive campaign pointing out that the only remaining reason for tossing butts is that you are a lazy antisocial slob that deserves being ostracized (for the littering)
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday October 10 2017, @09:51PM (6 children)
Other than japanese just being adverse to littering
No, that's the main reason right there, not anything about pocket ashtrays. It's not just cigarette butts that are missing from the streets of Japan and other public areas, it's all other trash too. You can even see it at the train/subway station: in Japan, there's just the rails, and the gravel, and that's it. Go to any subway in the US and you'll see all kinds of trash strewn around the tracks. Americans are simply litterbugs. They're not quite as bad as they were decades ago in the 70s, and not quite as bad as some underdeveloped countries, but they're really not clean people at all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 11 2017, @07:30AM
As the joke goes: During the FIFA World Cup the stadiums were cleaner AFTER the Japanese fans... I've friends who've stayed in Japan and they say they'd believe that- e.g. the fans might pick up trash and clean seats with wet-wipes. There are places where there aren't trash bins to be seen but they'd still be clean - you'd see the Japanese carry their trash with them, all the way home if necessary.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday October 11 2017, @11:07AM (2 children)
That's one of the things I least liked about moving from OK to TN. People in OK, for the most part, do not litter but every fucking morning here in TN I have to go pick up whatever bullshit some asshole decided they'd rather throw out their window into my yard than keep in their car until they got home.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 11 2017, @08:44PM (1 child)
> but every fucking morning here in TN
Probably not very often. How often do you get to fuck in the morning?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday October 12 2017, @01:37AM
More often than I care to. I want caffeine, nicotine, and solitude for the first few hours of the morning. It's bad manners to ignore a guest even if they're getting on your nerves though.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Wednesday October 11 2017, @12:14PM (1 child)
For fun - imagine the issue of putting the cigarette out and keeping the butt without the portable ashtray (designated smoking areas are a quite new thing).
But yes, I agree that the main reason is being litter-adverse but I'd argue that it is helped by devices that makes keeping clean easier.
Personally I don't consider the japanese to ge that extreme in cleaning but I'm a native swede - here we at least dump our thrash near the thrashcan (fun thing in sweden, you can tell if a can is full just by seeing thrash next to it, and we can bury a thrashcan in garbage and keep the rest of the area clean without finding it odd), except for cigarettebutts for some reason.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday October 11 2017, @03:14PM
But yes, I agree that the main reason is being litter-adverse but I'd argue that it is helped by devices that makes keeping clean easier.
I completely disagree. The devices exist in Japan because of their litter-averseness. Remember, necessity is the mother of invention, so the portable ashtray was invented because someone, somewhere, didn't want to litter cigarette butts. Therefore, smokers in Japan buy these things and use them to avoid littering, whereas American smokers probably haven't even heard of such a thing, because they don't give a shit about littering.
Personally I don't consider the japanese to ge that extreme in cleaning but I'm a native swede
That's because you live in another highly civilized society, not one that really isn't much different from some dirty third-world country.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday October 10 2017, @06:45PM
Crows are smarter.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @07:08PM (1 child)
with all the aging population and "sin" tax increase,
the diminishing amount of cigarette and (buts), will lead to a
a crow population that makes cigarettes and the butts for their
reward?
of course, soon the crows will start growing coffee too and then only
give you your sweat smelly supper bureaucratic shot of coffee bean
after you collect and weight and rewarded the collected cigarette buts.
(Score: 1) by a262 on Tuesday October 10 2017, @11:40PM
Where's the +0, Incoherent mod?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by EvilSS on Tuesday October 10 2017, @04:28PM (2 children)
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Aiwendil on Tuesday October 10 2017, @07:58PM
From TFA
Sounds perfectly intentional (but still hilarious) to me
(Score: 3, Interesting) by richtopia on Tuesday October 10 2017, @08:43PM
I suspect the consequences could be even farther reaching. Crows will figure out how to game the system somehow, perhaps substituting the cigarette with a twig. I actually wouldn't be too surprised if we see something like a "quarter on a string" done by the crows so they can reuse their original cigarette butt.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @04:55PM
Come on why isn't this trendy disruptive startup innovating the narrative by redefining "AI" as Animal Intelligence.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by meustrus on Tuesday October 10 2017, @04:58PM (3 children)
And how do you get an AI vision system? You train it! So I guess it's even more "ironic" that at some point you need a vision system that can recognize the butts [xkcd.com] in order to properly train the AI that will train the crows.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @05:24PM (2 children)
I'm still waiting for supergenius Elon Musk to build a cyborg horsecar with the body of a car and the brain of a horse, which is how I choose to interpret xkcd 1720 [xkcd.com].
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Tuesday October 10 2017, @05:37PM (1 child)
Reminds me of Tais Teng's "Aan de oevers van de nacht". Has anyone ever translated that book to English??
An alternative reality where bio-magic won from science.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @06:49PM
Roger MacBride Allen wrote a couple of novels which featured cyborgs as large as solar systems with brains the size of moons. The Charonians as they were called were the dominant form of life in the galaxy because they ate Earthlike planets and thus humanoid life rarely had any chance to evolve.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @05:44PM (7 children)
All you clever programmers and hot shit smokers don't know squat.
Tobacco is poisonous to birds, see:
http://www.petpoisonhelpline.com/pet-safety-tips/whats-poisonous-to-birds-and-pocket-pets/ [petpoisonhelpline.com]
Years ago a machinist I knew had a talking mynah bird -- which was found dead one day when he forgot to empty the cigar ashes out of his ash tray (up to then he had emptied it religiously).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @06:01PM (5 children)
Training birds to pick up cigarette butts will result in evolution allowing some individuals to become immune to tobacco and spread their genes far and wide.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @06:15PM (3 children)
Not in your lifetime, buddy. What it will result in is dead birds all over, followed by a big spike in whatever insects (etc) that the birds used to control.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Kromagv0 on Tuesday October 10 2017, @06:57PM (2 children)
So you are saying that they should be training pigeons to do the work then.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10 2017, @07:56PM (1 child)
What, you like dead pigeons on the ground next to the smoking areas?
(Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Wednesday October 11 2017, @01:38PM
That is what trash cans are for, or street sweepers.
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(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday October 11 2017, @12:08AM
One step further on the evolution path and the birds will start cultivating tobacco and roll themselves ... no, not whole ciggies, they wouldn't be able to light them ... to roll themselves some nice butts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday October 10 2017, @09:57PM
This is a good point, and another big reason why this idea should be dropped, and instead my idea from another post here should be adopted: they need to train the birds to shit on litterbugs, and smokers too while we're at it.
If that isn't feasible for some reason, maybe they could train geese to attack these people.
(Score: 2) by NewNic on Tuesday October 10 2017, @07:53PM
Where is realDonaldTrump? He should be here to tell us that "positive reinforcement" is a commie plot and instead they should just capture those crows and beat them until they start picking up trash.
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory